Goodbye
by IFallForGoldenEyes
Summary: The time always comes... You can't predict it and you can't prevent it. That time has unfortunately come for our Captain Jack Sparrow. But in the captain's last few breaths, he reveals a feeling he's kept secret his whole life...


_**Some of you will probably **__REALLY__** not like this story... My first oneshot! Yay!!! I never thought I'd be able to write one. If any of you could think of a better name than Goodbye..., It would be much appreciated**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own PotC**_

_**Eeeeenjoooy!**_

* * *

Goodbye...

_by The Caged Sparrow_

**__**

The room was silent. Everyone was contemplating what was going on in...there. They could hear Jack's wails of agony as he was taking his final breaths. Gibbs was the first one to have the courage to open the door. There he was. In his own Captain's Quarters dying. It had been his own choice to die at sea, so they hadn't taken him to a doctor. He had refused whenever they brought it up. He looked up at Gibbs and smiled weakly.

"Cap'n..." Gibbs started.

Jack 'shh'-ed him. "Ye know ye don't have to call me that anymore. I'm not gonna be yer captain for very much longer." Jack answered.

At that, Will came in. "But we will call you that until you go." Jack could tell the boy was only say this fiercely to hold back the tears he wanted to shed. "We will call you that..."

"Ah, William. The whelp always being so noble..." was all Jack said back.

Through all the times Jack had used him and tricked him, decieved and lied to him, made him leverage, Will had become very close to Jack. Even though Jack had always used him, Will still did not want him to die. As he looked down on the captain, he couldn't stop the tears.

Even Barbossa came in. "Ye know, if ye had kept that blasted coin ye wouldn't be experiencin' this?" he said in his own sardonicly caring way.

"How do ye know I didn't?" Jack answered back and smiled weakly.

Barbossa laughed wholeheartedly. "Don't ye remember? I was there when ye were trapped in Jones' locker! Ye wouldn't 'ave been there if ye'd taken the coin!" He smiled back. "No use fooling me now, Jack. Was no use then, 'tis no use now..."

"But I couldn't bear to die without leavin' ye all fooled about somethin'."

"Can't argue with that..." Gibbs spoke up.

"So you intend to fool me again, Jack? And leave me wondering what is **really** the truth for all eternity?" Will asked.

"Wouldn't go without it..." Jack chuckled.

* * *

_"That's the _Flying Dutchman_?" Will had asked. Gibbs elbowed Jack. Will continued, "Doesn't look like much." _

_"Neither do you!" Jack had come up with as an answer. "Do __not underestimate 'er!"_

* * *

Yes, it was too much fun for Jack to tease William. And to come up with names like 'whelp' and 'eunuch.' Just too much fun. He couldn't bear to leave without doing it once again... 

"Ay! Where is yer dolly belle...oh...whats-'er-face?"

Hmm...He'd used that phrase before...

* * *

_"Mister Gibbs!"_

_"Aye, Cap'n?"_

_"We have a need to travel up river..." Jack whispered._

_"Do you mean a need as in a trifling need, a fleeting need. As in a passing fancy?" Gibbs asked desperately._

_"No." Jack answered. "A resolute and unyeilding need..."_

_"What we need to do," Will started. "is make speed towards Port Royal with all haste..."_

_"William,..." Jack said. "I will trade you the compass if you will help me find this..." He showed him the cloth with the 'draw-er-ing' of the key._

_Will made a face. "You want me to find this?"_

_"No... __**You**__ want you to find this... Because the finding of this, finds you incapacitorily finding and/or locating the detecting of a way to save your dolly belle...oh...what's-'er-face. ...Savvy?"_

_Will gave him a weird look like he didn't understand a word he said. Then, he broke out of this trance and held up the cloth. "__**This **__will save Elizabeth?"_

_"How much do you know about Davy Jones?"_

_He thought a few seconds. "Not much."_

_"Yeah, It'll save Elizabeth..."_

* * *

Yes, that was it. Another tricking of William. The lad was so gullible. But Jack had to give him this: Near the end he had become clever. He'd outsmarted Jack at times and foiled his seemingly foolproof plans. And Gibbs, desperately not wanting to see _her_. It was priceless. He was trying to beg Jack not to! Beg to Jack Sparrow! 

"It's Elizabeth. She has a name, Jack." Will answered.

"Yes, a name I couldn't remember!" Jack said, then coughed. "Tell her to come soon. I'd like to give the lady a proper goodbye..."

* * *

_"Elizabeth?" Jack got her attention. "It would've never worked between us." She gave him a look like 'You've got to be kidding me!' "I'm sorry..." He went to walk away then turned to her and Will again. "Whelp?" Will looked at him. "Nice hat..." Jack could see Will's grin at his complement. He turned to the commodore and his men. "This is the day you will always remember as the day--" That was the point when he fell off the cliff._

* * *

He inwardly laughed. From then on, like bad luck, he could never finish his key phrase. There was the time with the cannibals...

* * *

_"Oi!" Jack rounded the bend and saw Will staring at him. The boy's face changed once he saw the cannibals behind Jack and everyone ran to make sail. "No! Wait! Oi! AGHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed, seeing them about to push off. He ran by the prison dog. For a brief moment he wondered how that dog was there. "Good doggie!" He looked behind him. "Ah-Ahhhh..." he moaned. He ran through the water. "Waaaaait!" he yelled. He climbed up the ropes and turned to the cannibals. "Alas, my children! This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost---" Then a wave splashed over him. He gave up. "Captain Jack... Sparrow..." he muttered then climbed aboard._

* * *

This reminded him, where were Pintel and Raghetti? Surely they'd come to say their goodbye's...? Probably? Possibly? Maybe? Ah, forget it... 

He heard the door creak open. There they were. "Sorry about being late an' such..." Raghetti started off. Pintel jabbed him.

"We couldn't miss saying goodbye to our wonderful captain." Pintel said politely.

"No use kissing up to me, Pintel." Jack told him.

"Sorry, Captain..."

"Oh, just shut up!" Barbossa ordered.

"Yes,...Captain?" Pintel shrugged. What else was he s'posed to call him?

"I agree, just shut up..." Jack scolded him.

"We're sorry about the mutiny..." Raghetti apologized. He looked away.

"I ain't. I needed that map to Isla de Muerta an' I got it. We just happened to mutineer Jack on an island in the process..." Barbossa disagreed.

"An' you tol' me to shut up..." Pintel muttered.

"Well, boy, where's Lizzie?" Jack asked Will suddenly. He started coughing uncontrolably.

"I'll go get her." Will said and hurried off.

Gibbs ran to Jack's side immediately, sat him up, and patted his back to stop his coughing. Barbossa laughed. "This is just too good..."

A few moments later, Elizabeth came into the room. Her eyes were visibly red from crying.

"Ah, Lizzie, there ye are. Why are ye crying? You're the one who killed me in the first place..." Jack joked. This sent Elizabeth into even more sobs. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Jack, I'm sorry... I should've never chained you to that mast..." she said through her tears.

"You should've never done what you did **before** you chained me... But you did it anyway, darling...Aye?"

"You know, now I want to slap you..."

"Wouldn't be worse then all the other times, love..."

Jack's mind went back to when they were about to fight Barbossa and his crew. He was on the ship with Elizabeth and they'd had a very important conversation.

* * *

_Elizabeth walked up a few feet away from Jack. Her eyes were kept down as she wrote her name in the dust on the rail. After a few moments she spoke. "You didn't tell him about the curse..." She stared out to the ocean. It was so peaceful out there. Too peaceful for her liking. But somehow, though peaceful, she could feel the intensity in it just waiting to be released._

_"I noticed neither did you..." Jack looked up at her. "For the same reason, I imagine..." He smiled. This girl was unlike any other. She tried to be prim and proper, but Jack could see right through that facade. He could see the pirate in her. Her curiousity of that life. Her want to do things on selfish impulse. To stay out on the sea forever. She was caged by her life as a governer's daughter. A Swann... Just another caged bird waiting to be released._

_Elizabeth sharply inhaled and drummed on the rail. "He wouldn't have risked it." She bit her lip. Saying this hurt her more than ever. She was releasing her deepest fear at this time in these words. She feared Norrington wouldn't go after Will and she'd have to live without him the rest of her life as a commodore's wife. If the commodore found out about the curse, this surely would happen. Elizabeth couldn't let it._

_"You could've gotten him drunk." Jack answered. He grinned at her as she looked up shocked. "Don't get me wrong, love. I admire a person who's willing to do whatever's necessary..." And he did admire a person like that. He was one himself. He'd do whatever was necessary. Give up anything he could give up. Some people might call it selfish, but he chose to see it as ambition. Ambition. Such a deep word. Not to him. To him ambition was all he had, whatever the cost..._

_Elizabeth smiled. "You're a smart man, Jack. But I don't think I entirely trust you..." But she did trust him. She admired him and unconditional trust came with that. She cursed herself for the trust and the lie she just told. But maybe it wasn't a lie. She trusted him, but it didn't have to be entirely..._

_Jack came closer and waved his hand between them. "Peas in a pod, darling..." And that, they truly were. She was him. An exact copy. He could tell._

_She looked up in suprise. That, she had not expected him to say. Were they truly? She did not feel as if she was like a pirate. Yes, she yearned for the sea, but that did not make her one. She admired him but __**that**__ did not make her one. What gave him that impression? Her thought proces was interrupted by Norrington's deep voice. She turned away._

_"With me, Sparrow." he ordered. Jack turned around and jumped back at the sight of him. He threw the compass at Jack._

_Jack gave a brief look back at Elizabeth before he left. Yes, she would come to his side. She'd disregard her rules and join his ways. She would become a pirate..._

* * *

"Jack! ...Is he ok?" she was turned to Gibbs. Apparently, he had gone off into a daze while remembering this and Lizzie thought something had gone wrong. She turned back to him and jumped when she saw his eyes open. "Jack...?" 

"I'm fine." Jack grinned. "I'm suprised you've actually shown concern. I thought you _wanted_ me to die." This brought tears to her eyes. "Ah, don't cry, love." He wheezed. "Ha, this is probably my last moment, darling. There's been something I've been wanting to tell you."

"No, Jack, don't waste your breath." Elizabeth begged him.

"No matter how many lies I've told..." he started, coughing and sharply inhaling the whole way. "these next few words are true..." He coughed harder. "Inexplainably...true." he said inbetween breaths.

"Jack,...rest..." Elizabeth fussed.

"Elizabeth, I..." He looked her fully in the eyes. He meant these last four words. Meant them with his whole heart. Everyone had left the room, not bearing to watch him die. These words were for her and only her, no matter any other time he'd used them. Only for her. "I loved you, Elizabeth..." he sighed, then slowly shut his eyes and passed on...


End file.
